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I think that these should be the attributes that PE uses(and their combat uses) Strength: + Damage, +Hit(Melee), Carry Weight, effects combat skills Dexterity: + AC, +Hit, Reflex save Constitution: Health, Stamina, Stamina Regen rate, Intelligence: Potency of spells/prayers(damage, duration, save DC, spell penetration, etc.), Skill points per level, Spell amount Willpower: Potency of spells/prayers, Will save, spell amount(per day or whatever PE ends up using), Spell resistance Perception: +Hit(Ranged) Now it looks like that some attributes play more of a role in combat, but this is where skills can come in.... Strength, Constitution, and Willpower would probably have the least use in skills of all the attributes. I honestly can't think of a way that Willpower or Constitution could be used for more than a few niche skills, while the majority of skills that would benefit from strength are very hard to implement outside of PnP. Dexterity obviously would impact skills such as stealth and pickpocket, Intelligence would impact the "knowledge" and crafting skills, and Perception would impact pretty much everything else. I would also argue that Perception can possibly effect every skill in some way. So while Perception would be the least valuable skill for combat it would be the most valuable for skill use, with the opposite true for Willpower(ironically these are fused together in D&D for Wisdom). I was a bit tired when I wrote this, so if I missed something please let me know.

Maybe now Russian males will have some apparatus that keeps them from drinking some much booze they die.

A good one? Something like AA or AC that is based upon the comic in general and not any particular event or movie. The only problem would be getting the Spider Sense to work well. @Amentep 699 was a bit creepy and I think he experienced the memory of Otto doing a little more than kissing Aunt May.... Anyways, I probably wouldn't want to play a Spider-Man game if it plays out how ASM698-700 seem to be and leads in to SSM where Peter isn't Spidey. Anything other than Peter behind the mask as Spider-Man in current continuity just seems wrong.

No. It means that in certain countries that are majority Muslim, sexism is institutionalized and accepted by the general population to some degree. Some cultures are inherently sexist, jingoistic, racist, and prejudiced. Just look at Japan, Southern United States, or Fundamentalist Islam. Which is how sexism should be handled in PE, where certain cultures(Not all of them) will see the sexes as unequal because of X. We already know that there will be different cultures and regions, so it would be very plausible for one to be sexist, jingoistic, racist, etc.

Except that Branch Davidians are not in positions of power. Extremist Muslims are in power in quite a few Muslim countries.

Look up "Effects of Soviet Invasion on Afghanistan". It was that little thing that helped the Taliban rise and turn a modern and liberal country into a backwater ****hole where religious extremists rule, kind of like Alabama.

Well this thread turned out well.

Warning, this post will be a bit long. I think that PE would have been better served by having 4(maybe 5*) base classes with several "subclasses"(at the moment the PE wiki says that subclasses will be included) instead of the 11 we have now. I believe that Paladin, Barbarian, Ranger, Monk, Druid, and Chanter are simply subclasses of the 4 usual base classes(Fighter, Priest, Rogue, and Wizard) and really don't need their own specific class, especially since subclasses are already going to be included. However, there will be 11 base classes, so Obsidian needs to make them as distinct as possible. They need to have abilities specific to classes that no other class has access to. I have some ideas on how to make the classes listed in the OP more distinct. The main problem I have with Druids is that as casters they can't compete with Clerics as divine casters or Mages as offensive casters, I would like to see a more unique druid spell list that lets them more effectively fill in a niche. I also think that letting a druid choose a "favored environment" where their spells are more effective when cast in that environment and/or a "favored element" which increases the strength of spells that deal with that element would make sense for a druid. As far as shifting goes, I think it either needs to be improved dramatically by allowing more creatures to shift in to and/or allowing the bonuses they get from equipment to carry in to the shifted form (as well as being able to cast spells while shifted", or ditched for an ability to channel an aspect of nature. What I mean by channeling an aspect of nature is that the druid could take upon the aspect of stone or flame to gain certain abilities, yet remain in human(oid) form and still have ready access to all equipment. Spoiler: I don't like Monks. Monks in most RPGs are not really that broad of a class. They almost always end up developing very similarly and IMO get pretty bland. I think that a big part of it is that their main combat ability(unarmed martial arts) grows so rapidly in most games that it is incredibly sub-optimal to have them use a weapon. I think that if the progression for unarmed damage was less steep this would be mitigated quite a bit. I would suggest that instead of upping the damage output as rapidly, the Monk's unarmed attacks could gain some magical proprieties at benchmarks instead of just dealing more damage. Also the monk's Chi or Ki or whatever you want to call it could be utilized in many different ways. I would love a Ki points per day system with the options to learn abilities besides stunning fist, perhaps some techniques that allow the monk to resist spells or move quicker. The biggest problem I've had with Rangers is that they usually get pushed in to being either a two-weapon warrior or archer. I think that if PE ditched the combat specialization rangers would get a bit more diverse. I generally think the concept of a favored enemy is fine, although I would like to see the list be a bit less redundant(Outsiders and Humanoids should not be split in to so many sub-categories) and the ability apply to more than just hit and damage. I also think the "druid-lite" nature powers need to be ditched in favor of other abilities, perhaps some that favor survival in certain environments or something. *On account of the Cipher, if it is like a Psion, then it should be it's own class

How the **** did this thread go from "Sexism in Project Eternity" to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other things by Whedon" to Political Correctness? Anyways I'd like to address a few things. The world should be consistent. The laws of the world should be firmly established and apply evenly throughout the setting. If having strength lower than X incurs a penalty for a certain race or class, that needs to be true in all situations involving those variables. There shouldn't be people who are immune to x element simply because the difficulty was set higher(like in the crapheap DA2) or bandits suddenly being able to take 10 times the damage they used to(level scaling). Motivations and actions should be realistic. Bandits should be in to the whole plundering thing and exist to do that, they should not be motiveless badies for the PC and party to slay to get XP. I'm tired of motivation-less(or even worse bull**** motive) characters. The world should take as little influence from real life as possible. I don't want to travel to a "sort of France" or adventure in "not quite Spain" or whatever. I want to see a world that is original and was designed without trying to emulate cultures from the real world.

That is similar to what I do. I love making characters that are different from the other PCs I create and see how the world reacts to them.

I do think the "mainstream" or "AAA" RPGs are mutating into something else entirely, but I do think that there is hope with kickstarter. I would argue that the main things AAA titles tend to feature(extremely detailed graphics, long cinematics, and lots of voice acting) are the things that matter least to most fans of RPGs. The thing that makes an RPG a RPG is the ability to roleplay a character consistently, which does not benefit from(and in the case of voiced PC suffers from) what most AAA titles have to offer. So what most of us would call a great RPG would not really benefit from the requirements for a AAA game, and don't really need the 20 million + budget. Kickstarter comes in to play by allowing developers to crowd source directly from their customers(essentially a pre-order in most cases) to create the game the fans want. This means we can have the great RPGs without having to sit through hours of cinematics, see zots thrown at making environments pretty rather than content rich, or having less dialogue available because all lines have to be voiced. We have a real successor to Fallout with Wasteland 2, a great RPG in Shadowrun Returns, Obsidian's Project Eternity is almost certain to be excellent, and others to scratch our RPG itch that AAA publishers seem hesitant to touch thanks to the opportunity provided by kickstarter. To answer the OP's question: I think that it is Western Publishers who believe that the traditional-RPG market is not worth pursuing, not necessarily Western Developers.

I'm curious how the community in general will be playing PE.

I think that sexism, racism, jingoism, bigotry, should exist. I also think that truly horrible thing should occur like rape, massacre, and incredibly cruel torture. Why? Because of realism. Not realism in the sense of having things be exactly like they are in real life, but realistic behaviors and motives. Take bandits for example. In quite a few games they are reduced to bad people who do bad things, even though those bad things are rarely shown or even discussed. I would love to see a band of racist and/or jingoistic bandits who go around raping and pillaging towns, because that is what bandits would do.

I saw that, but I already have NWN from GOG and I think 40 is a bit steep. If NWN is on GOG, hopefully NWN2 will show up soon (IIRC it is one of the highest voted on the wishlist)or get back on Steam.

I thought the review was very balanced. The major flaw it stated(bugs) is something that has been widely reported in BGEE. Whether this is because of Overhaul/Beamdog laziness, or just something that happens when a game is release(almost every modern game released now has some pretty horrible bugs in my experience) will be determined when a patch is released. I would advise anyone who has not yet downloaded BGEE to wait about a month until a few patches have been released to correct the worst of the bugs.

Speaking of NWN2, has there been any news when it will be available for download again? It is probably the best game(counting MotB expansion) I've ever played, but I'm afraid I lost my hardcopy when I moved.

Sadly that is true.

Those cries were warranted. They should have never abandoned TB combat. Especially for a damn D&D game. Best thing they ever did. I agree. I love D&D, but honestly it doesn't make a good cRPG. There are just too many rules you have to break(even in TB) where it ends up that it is better to just create your own ruleset. RTwP did do this somewhat, but still ended up keeping rules that don't really function well outside of PnP.

I hope that PE is extremely light on voice acting. It doesn't add any actual content to the game, so I think that it is pointless.

Mark Waid.

I'm neutral on the complex character creation with hidden values that determine NPC reaction, but I love the idea that the PC has "Public Perception of Alignment" and "Actual Alignment". The one thing I would try to do is make sure that "Actual Alignment" is not no restrictive, "Lawful Good" can mean wildly different things after all.

I am not going to be anyone in the game. The PC will be a zealous Paladin who is more interested in smiting the foes of his order and slaying multitudes of creatures than curing the ill and protecting people(offense over defense essentially). He will be over-confident, stubborn, and highly opinionated, but not evil or cruel.

The locations visited are close to the inn. Adventurers would need to rest after exerting themselves. Both are actually believable. The inn-keeper is spreading stories to get adventurers to come in the general vicinity of his/her inn, I think if it is presented as something that got out of hand for the inn-keeper(like the inn is just too busy) would make it even better. A snake-oil salesman would also be quite funny, especially if his potions actually ended up working(unbeknownst to said salesman).

That's what they may want you to think, but quite a different story is told if you examine the facts... Look at MOTB- Myrkul is clearly a stand in for Capitalist Conformity, cursing Akachi for daring to oppose his free market laissez-faire theology where you have freedom, but only in the choice of which Invisible Hand of the Pantheon to worship; consume their divine product- or as an allusion to Pink Floyd's seminal anti capitalist epic become "just another brick in the wall", literally. You really think it's coincidence that the curse involves you consuming souls, forcing you to consume more in a never ending cycle where more and more consumption is needed just to stand still? And that the only sensible strategy is to battle your foul, capitalistic impulses? You even get to put that foul avatar of capitalism, Myrkul, to rest, if you want, or show him the logical end point of his appalling ideology- hardly the act of a tame American Imperialist Capitalist Running Dog company, quite the reverse in fact. Of course, you can go the other way and embrace 'capitalism', consuming more and more, but what do you get in the end? A few meaningless baubles to give you the illusion of benefit, and an ally of extreme unreliability and danger. That's not all though: Alpha Protocol has you battling the forces of capitalism overtly. Halbech; Halliburton-Bechtel. Coincidence? I think not. KOTOR 2... well, you get the picture. Clearly Obsidian is bravely battling the system from the inside. Seriously, they just had a Kickstarter, which works on a communal funding model. That's hardly the act of a "American Capitalist company .. spreading the lies of American Imperialism", now is it? I rest my case. Well played.

I'm still on the fence to be honest. I think I'm going to wait a while for fixes for and reviews of BGEE before I make my decision.